Technical Field
The present invention relates to electrical devices, and more particularly, to electrical fuses.
Description of the Related Art
During the development of semiconductor technology, fuses have been incorporated in integrated circuits (ICs) to permit design flexibility and to improve yield. For example, fuses can be employed to selectively de-activate portions of a generic integrated circuit (IC) and thereby tailor the circuit to suit particular design needs. Further, fuses can also be utilized in an IC fabricated with redundant elements to permit the isolation and replacement of defective components of the circuit. Common fuse programming or “blow” techniques involve melting components of the fuse or severing components through the use of a laser. In addition, many fuses utilize geometric manipulation to implement programming. For example, dog-bone or dumb-bell shaped fuses effect programming through current density divergence, where current density is maximized in a small cross-sectional area in the bridge of the device to sever the connection. However, current density divergence can be further leveraged with other more complex shapes, such as multi-tier fuses.